Thought for the week

It was prizegiving evening for the Football League at London's Grosvenor House hotel on Sunday night and, even if it seems a little like tempting fate to dish out awards before promotion and relegation issues are settled, there were some worthy winners. The respective players of the year in the Championship, League One and League Two were Newcastle United's Kevin Nolan, Leeds United's Jermaine Beckford and Rochdale's Craig Dawson.

Most people already know quite a bit about both Beckford and Nolan – although, while clearly one of the Championship's outstanding performers, the latter was arguably slightly lucky to finish in front of both West Bromwich Albion's creative attacking midfielder Graham Dorrans and this blog's personal choice for the honour, Newcastle's brilliant goalkeeper Steve Harper.

Dawson, meanwhile, is already being tracked by a cluster of Premier League clubs. The 19-year-old made the step up from non-league Radcliffe Borough just last year but is a big reason why Rochdale are odds-on favourites to escape League Two and clinch only the second promotion of their 103-year history.

Crystal Palace fans will surely not be overly surprised that Nathaniel Clyne won the Young Player award, a prize previously collected by, among others, Fabian Delph, Gareth Bale and David Nugent. Unfortunately for Selhurst Park regulars the pacy 18-year-old overlapping full-back seems destined to follow Victor Moses out of south London in yet another changing of the guard at the Palace.

Similarly, Cardiff fans could soon be seeing the back of Adam Matthews, winner of the Apprentice of the Year. Indeed his summer sale might even ensure the financially stricken club's long-term survival. Admired by, among others, Manchester United, the versatile midfielder or full-back would be sorely missed in South Wales. The ideal would be for a player like Matthews to continue their development under Dave Jones's wing at Cardiff but unfortunately it may well be that Peter Ridsdale's accounting team decrees otherwise.

At least Norwich City should be able to hang on to Tom Adeyemi, their promising midfielder and League One Apprentice of the Year, while the same should be true of Cheltenham and Kyle Haynes, the League Two defender and divisional winner in that category.

Goals of the weekend

Michael Pook's late hat-trick, registered within the space of 10 frenetic minutes for Cheltenham which enabled them to win 6-5 at Burton. The midfielder had scored just five previous goals in his seven seasons as a professional.

Barry Robson for Middlesbrough in the 2-2 draw against Newcastle United at the Riverside. Robson played two one-twos with his former Celtic team-mate Scott McDonald and then sent a swerving left-foot shot beyond Steve Harper.

One to watch

Connor Wickham, Ipswich

The 16-year-old forward scored the only goal in Ispwich's 1-0 home victory against Cardiff City. David Wright, the Ipswich defender, later said: "There are similarities between Connor and Dean Ashton. There's no reason why Connor can't go on to play for England." Already 6ft 3in Wickham, an England Under-16 international, is the youngest player to have represented Ipswich. How the late Sir Bobby Robson, who always kept a keen eye out for events at one of his old clubs, would have enjoyed tracking Wickham's progress.

Alex Smithies, Huddersfield Town

Goalkeepers do not usually mature until well into their third decade but at just 20 Smithies is excelling in the position for Lee Clark's exciting League One ensemble.

Neil Warnock and Adel Taarabt, QPR

The Morocco midfielder is on loan from Spurs and scored his seventh goal of the season to earn Queens Park Rangers a 1-1 draw at Warnock's beloved Sheffield United last weekend. "Adel's an enigma but he's gradually eliminating his negatives," said Warnock. QPR's new manager then added: "He needs a lot of loving, which I give him." Manager-player relationships rarely come more intriguing.

Games to look forward to

Saturday, Championship: West Brom v Preston

Preston are perking up under Darren Ferguson and dented Nottingham Forest's automatic promotion hopes last weekend. Can they do similar damage to Roberto Di Matteo's team? Could be some decent football at the Hawthorns.

QPR v Swansea

Neil Warnock v one of his many Loftus Road predecessors, Paulo Sousa. Managing QPR proved a poisoned chalice for the former Portugal international, who seems to have Swansea set fair for the play-offs and will be keen to exert revenge. Warnock, though, appears to have thoroughly woken his talented charges up.